Nendoroid 15th Anniversary! Report on the shooting of a special video showing the previous Nendoroids moving cutely, and interview with Takuma Aomatsu, director (dwarf)!

Nendoroid, the palm-sized deformed figures released by Good Smile Company that are cute to look at and fun to touch, will celebrate its 15th anniversary in 2021. To commemorate the anniversary, a special video has been released.

The special Nendoroid video will be released on YouTube on February 13, 2021. Originally, the video was to be released at "Wonder Festival 2021 [Winter]," which was scheduled to be held on February 7, but due to the state of emergency declared following the spread of the new coronavirus infection, the "Wonder Festival" was canceled.

Therefore, the "WONDERFUL HOBBY LIFE FOR YOU! 32" (live One Hobby TV), which was held from February 11 to 23.

The video is a dream-filled video of the Nendoroids displayed in a house at night when everyone is asleep, and the Nendoroids start to move: .......

The video was produced by Dwarf, an animation production studio that has released many stop-motion animated films, including "Domo-kun" and "Rilakkuma and Kaoru-san.

Akiba Research Institute's editorial staff visited the studio to observe the filming.

Sneaking into the stop motion animation shooting site!

The "animators" who add movement and facial expressions to the three-dimensional objects move the "Nendoroids" little by little, and once the picture is complete, it is ready for filming ....... The steady work is repeated from morning to night, to the point of becoming tedious.

The result is an interesting collection of images that, when connected together, make the Nendoroids look as if they are really moving. It was a different kind of excitement from hand-drawn animation to see an "object moving.

Takuma Aomatsu, the director of this film, was in charge of gathering the images of many situations and finally combining them into a single work.

We asked Aomatsu about how the Nendoroid images, which were created using Japan's best stop-motion animation technology, came to life.

We hope you enjoy the interview as much as we did the video.

Interview with Takuma Aomatsu, director of the "Nendoroid" special video!

───What is the story behind the promotional video?

Aomatsu: The story is that there are Nendoroids in various places in the home, and they start moving at night when people are asleep. That's why the images are dark and set at night. We proposed this concept in consultation with Good Smile Company.

─ How did you choose the characters that appear in the film?

Aomatsu: Good Smile Company chose the characters that were appropriate for the story, and then we put them in the video.

─ Stop motion animation seems to be a very time-consuming process, but how exactly did you go about creating it?

Aomatsu: In the case of this video, one animator was assigned to each scene and was in charge of posing and shooting time-lapse photography.

───This video is 45 seconds long, but if you do a simple calculation, it takes about 45 hours just to shoot the video?

Aomatsu: That's right. In terms of time, we shot from 9:00 in the morning to 11:00 at night for one week.

───This may sound like a cliché, but it is an incredible amount of work. ......

Aomatsu: It takes a long time to shoot, but we have been doing time-lapse animation for a long time, so I think that's just the way it is.

─ ─ I heard that for scenes with multiple characters, you don't shoot a single scene all at once, but rather shoot each character separately to a certain extent, and then composite them together at the end to complete the image. I had thought that stop motion animation was shot in a more analog manner, but I was surprised to learn that it is also created using this kind of digital technology.

Aomatsu: Today's stop-motion animation often uses compositing to improve filming efficiency. Also, in this case, the Nendoroid is small, so the space it occupies on the screen is very small. So when we put our hands on the Nendoroids, they inevitably bump into each other. Also, since the Nendoroids are sometimes posed in a way that makes it difficult for them to stand on their own, there is always room for a human hand and a support for the Nendoroid to stand up, so we use a technique where we composite the video afterwards.

─ I had no idea that behind a few 10-second images, there was such hard work and technical excellence.

Aomatsu: However, we are not trying to sell the difficulty of the work, so I hope you will enjoy the images.

───What are the highlights of the video?

Aomatsu: The fact that there are so many different characters and that they are all from popular works. I think the combination of the movements of the anime characters and the movements of the Nendoroid characters gives the video a "cuteness" that I think is very appealing. For those who own Nendoroids in particular, this is a highlight, as it makes you wish your own dolls could move.

─ ─ In addition to the cuteness of the Nendoroids, I was also overwhelmed by the way you created the sets to recreate various situations.

Aomatsu: That's right. The images in this video are more like scenes from each home rather than made-up sets, so we used not only well-crafted sets, but also actual small items that are sold on the market. I think it is best if the viewer can concentrate on the animation of the dolls without feeling any sense of discomfort, so I was careful not to make the viewer think, "That doesn't look too much like a house," or "That doesn't look natural.

─ Which scene is Director Aomatsu's favorite?

Aomatsu Each scene has its own highlights, but I think the scene from "Konosuba (Bless This Wonderful World!)" is my favorite. (Bless this wonderful world!)" scene. Megumi is lying behind Kazuma and the other characters, and I like that scene because I imagined that Megumi's explosive magic had scattered the office.

───It is interesting that the hat side of the characters is visible behind them instead of their faces, isn't it?

Aomatsu: It only appears for a moment, so I would be happy if you could watch it several times to check it out. I hope you will watch it again and again to check it out. I have made it so that you will discover something new every time you see it.

──If there were to be a new Nendoroid video project in the future, what kind of video would you like to make?

Aomatsu: I like the "Nendoroid" of the criminal from "Detective Conan," and I'd like to see what I can do with them.

─ ─ What do you think is the appeal of Nendoroids?

Aomatsu: First of all, there is the original anime, and then there is the fact that it is made into a three-dimensional figure, and that it is made smaller and cuter. Then there are the poses. The poses of the Nendoroids are very well calculated. Each part is well made and designed so that anyone can pose them in a cute way. As I touched the various Nendoroids, I was reminded of how much thought went into them.

─ ─ Finally, do you have a message for those who watched the video?

Aomatsu: I'm sure there are many people who have Nendoroids from their favorite works, and I tried to visualize how they become cuter when they move.

I hope you will enjoy imagining in your mind's eye how ...... it would be if this Nendoroid (the one you have at home) were to move.

Takuma Aomatsu Profile

Born in Osaka in 1979, Aomatsu graduated from Osaka University of Arts with a degree in visual arts.

He joined Dwarf in 2006 and is active in a wide range of fields, including directing, character development, and animation production. He has received many awards including the 29th The Choice Annual Grand Prize, AD STARS 2018 GOLD, and ADFEST 2019 SILVER.

Major works include the Reconstruction Agency commercial "Let's learn with parents and children," the TV anime "Osomatsu-san" Season 1-3 ending, and Ai "Ai to Ai.

About Dwarf Animation Production Studio

Dwarf, a division of xpd Inc., has created numerous characters and content, including the NHK character "Domo-kun," which has become popular around the world, and "Komaneko," which continues its long-running run in France, and has received recognition both in Japan and abroad for its outstanding technical skills in time-lapse photography and other video works. The studio is a stop-motion animation production studio that has been recognized both in Japan and abroad for its outstanding technical skills in time-lapse animation and other video productions. In addition to original works, the studio actively collaborates with a variety of popular characters and famous content. Recently, they produced and produced the Netflix original series "Rilakkuma and Kaoru-san".

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